Spirolactone making acne worse?

[Shelydon]

Has anyone's teen used sprirolactone for acne?  My DD dermatologist prescribed this, and her skin is the worst it has ever been one month into treatment.  I've called her dermatologist, but she won't see her until 3 months of treatment.

[Shelydon]

4 minutes ago, Seasider too said:

That’s an interesting application of that drug. I’ve thought of it as an older person’s remedy as a diuretic for heart failure issues. Sorry I can’t speak to it’s efficacy as an acne treatment but it seems odd to me. Hope others can help. 

Yes, it was originally a blood pressure medication, but now it primarily used for acne is female patients

[alisoncooks]

I'm not familiar with that treatment, but could it be purging? That's a fairly common phenomenon with new or especially strong treatments. 

[wathe]

It's used off-label for female acne - it's an androgen receptor blocker- as a type of hormone therapy.  It's also used off-label for hirsutism and transgender M2F hormone therapy.  It can have lots of side effects (hyperkalemia being the most serious).  Its hormonal side-effects include decreased body hair, gynecomastia, etc- generally feminizing the body.  I've not heard of acne as a side-effect, though I have heard of other rashes (chloasma, and drug allergy type rashes)

I still see it used mostly for cirrhosis and heart failure.  It's not commonly used for acne treatment here (Canada) - I see more OCP, antibiotics, accutane.

[Shelydon]

55 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

I'm not familiar with that treatment, but could it be purging? That's a fairly common phenomenon with new or especially strong treatments. 

Spirolactone is not supposed to have that side effect.  We are just about ready to give up on treatment.  Everything we try seems to fail.

[Shelydon]

48 minutes ago, wathe said:

It's used off-label for female acne - it's an androgen receptor blocker- as a type of hormone therapy.  It's also used off-label for hirsutism and transgender M2F hormone therapy.  It can have lots of side effects (hyperkalemia being the most serious).  Its hormonal side-effects include decreased body hair, gynecomastia, etc- generally feminizing the body.  I've not heard of acne as a side-effect, though I have heard of other rashes (chloasma, and drug allergy type rashes)

I still see it used mostly for cirrhosis and heart failure.  It's not commonly used for acne treatment here (Canada) - I see more OCP, antibiotics, accutane.

We tried antibiotics and several topicals.  She is not willing to jump through the hoops required for accutane, so the doctor recommended spirolactone

[hellen]

Are you certain it's not fungal acne?  

[Shelydon]

5 hours ago, hellen said:

Are you certain it's not fungal acne?  

No, I'm not, but after reading a description, the acne is not itchy, so I think it is regular acne

[kristin0713]

I had terrible side effects with spironolactone and it didn’t help my acne. The topical that worked for me the best was proactive (as a teen) and proactive md as an adult. 

I tried so many treatments as well. BCPs (which worked, but eventually I didn’t want the hormones), antibiotics (worked for a short time and then became ineffective) and I started Accutane but had to stop because of side effects. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

Aldactone was the only thing that takes care of my acne.  I’m 39 and still get acne if I go off it.  
It took about 2-3 months to become effective IIRC.  I’ve been on it over a decade, though it was first prescribed to me as a testosterone blocker as I have PCOS.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Mrs Tiggywinkle